A wonderful instrument and much treasured by Grainger amongst others. His whole approach to the instrumentation of the Hill Songs seems to be based on its sound.

So many - I tend to think context has a place here. E.g. I love hearing trombone in pop music, simply because of its relative rarity. However, like Mary, I do love bells. There's something about percussion with sustained sonority. Gamelan (gong or bell?)  , church bells, even bicycle bells. An instrument, alarm, call for attention all in one. In thailand recently I discovered bell stones (hung stones with a sonorous ring) amazing, plus very organic.

harmonium is lovely too.

I like the harp too. Aeolian harps (perhaps paired with chimes - see above!) are beautiful - nature providing lungs is very appealing. Great to hear Joanna Newsom re-popularize this instrument.

The instrument I really wish I could play? My singing voice!

R Strauss employed a harmonium in Ariadne auf Naxos but the French inventors of the instrument had only envisaged its being used in the home. It seems they have not been made since the 1930s. Whatever its charms might have been, I wonder why anyone would choose it over an upright piano. It must be tiring having to pump the bellows with one's feet. And the repertoire is far more limited. Perhaps it had particular attractions when more people went to church.

IMO there is nothing to rival the sound of a pipe band. I have no trouble understanding why the hieland regiments were so feared on the battlefield.

What is a harmonium? I thought it was indian instrument.

Did anyone hear the glass harmonica on Radio 3 on Sunday morning playing music by Mozart? I only heard part of it in the car but it seemed to be the version I've got played on a number of glasses filled with different amounts of water. That's very clever but in order to play it quickly enough the player (whom I cannot remember offhand) has to tap the glasses sometimes, rather than rub the rims. I've got another version on a proper glass harmonica on a Naxos CD.

There seems to be confusion about which instrument to use in the Carnival of the Animals (the Aquarium). Saint-Saens says glass harmonica but I've heard the part played on a glockenspiel and even a mouth organ.

I would love to adopt a harmonium, if only there was room for it here. And the transporter was working. I think the one of the coils in the pattern buffer may be on the way to burnout. Has anybody ever heard of an organ rescue network? I had a brief contact with a young man who rescued and rebuilt organs but lost touch a couple of years ago.